Tuesday, 20 December 2011

We have considered where our film would be advertised in order to broaden our audience.

The most effective form of advertising for a new film release is that of a teaser trailer. These can be played on television during advertisement breaks, to peak the interest of the general public. The trailer can also be played in cinema theatres in order to appeal to a more specific audience, as trailers linking to the film being played are shown. Therefore our film would be advertised via trailer before an audience watched a horror film, possibly of the possession sub genre, in order to interest people that enjoy films of the same genre. For example, this is the teaser trailer for 'The Woman In Black' , as accessed here .

Another common advertising style is the form of a film poster in various locations. These can be on billboards and bus stops in order to peak the interest of the general public as they pass by, so that they are more likely to have the film in their mind and make the effort to find out more. They can reveal varying amounts of information about the film, depending on how much of a mystery the company would like to create around the narrative.

For example, this billboard for the movie 'Legion' , as accessed here , includes only the title of the film and the release date in terms of large writing. There are some pieces of institutional information but they are positioned at the bottom and are small enough that they cannot be read very easily. There is one main image, including features that stick out from the rest of the billboard. This form of poster is effective for landscape posters especially, and can be very useful at appealing to the general public due to the large size. The billboard's simplicity is useful due to the large scale, although for other forms of poster it would be expected that more information may be involved. Therefore if we were to use a billboard we may make the decision to remove some of the other information on our poster, such as the tagline , in order to make it simpler and therefore more striking.

This is an example of a bus stop advertisement for the film 'District 9' , as accessed here. It is presented as if the poster exists in the world of the narrative and does not expressly reveal that it advertises a film. By referring to the interesting nature of the narrative and involving the general public, it is more likely to increase interest. A website is presented so that the public can access information about the poster and find out more about the film. Film posters used in bus stops often involve more information than billboards, as they are more easily read and are often looked at for a period of time while waiting for a bus. Therefore this would be an effective placement of our film poster, as we would not need to change any details from the original poster created.

Film posters can also be shown inside and outside a cinema location, in order to peak interest of people who are already interested in going to the cinema. Therefore the posters apply to a slightly more niche market already. Often, there are large displays of various films posters outside the cinema, and large banners displayed inside depending on the most popular film or the film that is most expected to be successful. This would therefore be very effective in the advertising of our film.

Due to the rising technology online, it has become very popular to include website addresses in adverts for films, such as at the bottom of posters. These website addresses, such as http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/the-fourth-kind/ in order to advertise the film 'The Fourth Kind' , are useful in appealing to audiences that enjoy finding out extra information about the films that they watch. For example background information can be included as well as behind the scenes footage and profiles about the characters involved. This can be very effective in broadening audiences, as well as effective in selling more copies of the DVD by making it easy to pre-order. Therefore creating a webpage would be highly useful in advertising our film.

Saturday, 17 December 2011

Linking with our post about the iconography of the genre , we examined some trailers that use flashes of negative to emphasise unnatural themes and events.

This can be seen in the trailer for 'Thir13en Ghosts', a film that is heavily based on haunting and the supernatural.

Although it is not a horror film, the teaser trailer for 'Twilight' also incorporates flashes of negative in order to portray the supernatural element of the narrative.

These effects are especially effective because they are so brief that it is somewhat disorientating for the audience to watch. This could be applied to the uneasiness and fear that may be involved in the film. We have therefore decided to include some brief flashes of negative in order to make the most of this effect and fully support the genre that we are aiming for.

Thursday, 1 December 2011

Our target audience is quite broad. Although there is the option to aim our film at a niche demographic, we decided that we would aim to gain a wider range of audiences.The age range of our target audience is 15-25, although we expect that some older demographics may be drawn to the sexualised characters, as is referred to in our school girl costume post . However, teens and young adults may be more drawn to the subject matter as they will identify with the similarly aged characters and their actions, such as listening to club music and going to parties.Our film will appeal to both males and females. Males may be drawn to the attractive girls and the inclusion of violence and supernatural elements. Females may be more drawn to the characters in that they seem aspirational through appearing fashionable. However, it is also likely that females may be drawn to the film through the idea of justice being served to the immoral characters as was referenced in a theory post .